Cleveland Clinic approved for heart transplants

Weston-based Cleveland Clinic Florida became the second hospital in Broward to receive final approval to perform adult heart transplants, clinic administrators said Tuesday.

The clinic joins Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, that was given the go-ahead in April to perform the life-saving procedure.

Cleveland Clinic is now the only Broward hospital approved for adult liver, kidney and heart transplants, said Dr. Andreas Tzakis, a surgeon who leads the Cleveland Clinic's transplant program.

Last year, the clinic received approval from Florida regulators and the nationwide United Network for Organ Sharing to perform adult liver and kidney transplants. So far, Cleveland Clinic has conducted more than 40 liver and kidney transplants. Now the clinic is ready for heart transplants.

Transplants can improve sick people's lives, Tzakis said. "They have been shown to prolong life and enhance the quality of life," he said.

For years patients in Broward or Palm Beach County had to go to Miami, Orlando, the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, Jacksonville or Gainesville for a heart transplant. Until this year, only six Florida hospitals were approved to do heart transplants.

That hurt local patients' chances — studies have shown that transplant recipients benefit from a local network of family and friends to help them, Tzakis said.

So Cleveland Clinic focused on starting a transplant unit in Weston, Tzakis said, using expertise and staff from its flagship Cleveland campus that has been performing kidney transplants since 1963, heart transplants since 1968 and liver transplants since 1984.

"For the last two years, we have recruited an outstanding team of transplant professionals," Tzakis said.

Those include surgeons, organ procurement specialists, nurses, dietitians and social workers.